Pride and Tragedy

Margaret Regan penned her first story for the Tucson Weekly—an art review, she tells me—20 years ago this very month.

And all of us here at Weekly World Central are proud as hell of Margaret, our arts editor, because she's also reached another milestone this month: the publication of her first book.

You can read the prologue (and title story) from that book, The Death of Josseline: Immigration Stories From the Arizona-Mexico Borderlandshere. The book is an amazing compilation of true tales (some of which were initially published in the Weekly) involving the international border that just so happens to sit in our backyard.

Consider yourself warned: The story of 14-year-old Josseline Jamileth Hernández Quinteros, who died two years ago this month, will break your heart. And tragic stories like hers continue to happen in the Sonoran Desert on an all-too-regular basis.

Just last week, No More Deaths announced that another body has been found in the desert.

"They found this new person two miles east of Ruby," Margaret told me in an e-mail. "... This just goes to show that Josseline's death was not an isolated incident and that nothing has changed."

Margaret goes on to say that the number of bodies recovered in the desert in fiscal year 2010, as of Jan. 31, is up to 61. In fiscal year 2009, the total was 206, Margaret says, up from 183 the year before.

No matter what your political feelings are on the border mess, you have to agree: This is deplorable. But thanks to great work like The Death of Josseline, people around the country and world are just starting to understand the extent of this tragedy. And that understanding is a very good thing.